The present invention relates to document image capture apparatus and methods and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for more efficient document image capture using mobile smart phones and tablets.
Most smart phones, such as the Apple iPhone, include a high resolution, full color camera as a standard feature. In addition to the built-in camera application (app), many third party camera apps can be loaded on smart phones to provide additional document image processing capabilities.
These apps promote the concept of using the smart phone's camera to capture traditional documents, mimic a document scanner, and then transfer the document or store the document. The apps add functions that are needed to capture document images, such as convert an image to black and white, adjust resolution and contrast, set or crop image size, optimize/reduce file size, format file to PDF, transmit file, and the like.
Typically, these apps require the user to place a document on a flat surface, such as a table, and use the camera's view finder to move the device to a location that allows approximately a full view of the entire document page with as little skew as possible. Once the device is positioned to focus the image in full view, and image skew has been minimized, the user enables the camera shutter and captures the image.
After the image is captured, app tools can be used to further reduce image skew and better define the borders of the document image. Then, the image is converted to PDF or JPEG. The resulting file is then typically transferred via email or uploaded to a server.
The user takes significant time to stand above the document and manually move the smart phone or tablet in three dimensions to determine focus and approximate a full view of the entire document. Moreover, when the user activates the shutter button to capture the image, this can cause the device to move and render the image unusable and require the process to be repeated. Often, the image that is captured needs to be further enhanced using software tools, such as crop, deskew, and the like, provided in the app. This ends up being a tedious and time consuming task for each image.
As can be seen, there is a need for an improved apparatus and device for capturing document images using tablets, smart phones, or similar portable electronic devices.